Low HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) and small HDL particle size may directly promote hyperglycemia. We evaluated associations of HDL-C, apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), and HDL-C/apoA-I with insulin secretion, ...insulin resistance, HbA1c, and long-term glycemic deterioration, reflected by initiation of pharmacologic glucose control.
The 5-year Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes (FIELD) study followed 9,795 type 2 diabetic subjects. We calculated baseline associations of fasting HDL-C, apoA-I, and HDL-C/apoA-I with HbA1c and, in those not taking exogenous insulin (n = 8,271), with estimated β-cell function (homeostasis model assessment of β-cell function HOMA-B) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Among the 2,608 subjects prescribed lifestyle only, Cox proportional hazards analysis evaluated associations of HDL-C, apoA-I, and HDL-C/apoA-I with subsequent initiation of oral hypoglycemic agents (OHAs) or insulin.
Adjusted for age and sex, baseline HDL-C, apoA-I, and HDL-C/apoA-I were inversely associated with HOMA-IR (r = -0.233, -0.134, and -0.230; all P < 0.001; n = 8,271) but not related to HbA1c (all P > 0.05; n = 9,795). ApoA-I was also inversely associated with HOMA-B (r = -0.063; P = 0.002; n = 8,271) adjusted for age, sex, and HOMA-IR. Prospectively, lower baseline HDL-C and HDL-C/apoA-I levels predicted greater uptake (per 1-SD lower: hazard ratio HR 1.13 CI 1.07-1.19, P < 0.001; and HR 1.16 CI 1.10-1.23, P < 0.001, respectively) and earlier uptake (median 12.9 and 24.0 months, respectively, for quartile 1 vs. quartile 4; both P < 0.01) of OHAs and insulin, with no difference in HbA1c thresholds for initiation (P = 0.87 and P = 0.81). Controlling for HOMA-IR and triglycerides lessened both associations, but HDL-C/apoA-I remained significant.
HDL-C, apoA-I, and HDL-C/apoA-I were associated with concurrent insulin resistance but not HbA1c. However, lower HDL-C and HDL-C/apoA-I predicted greater and earlier need for pharmacologic glucose control.
Pericyte degeneration is an early event in diabetic retinopathy and plays an important role in progression of diabetic retinopathy. Clinical studies have shown that fenofibrate, a peroxisome ...proliferator–activated receptor α (PPARα) agonist, has robust therapeutic effects on diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetic patients. We evaluated the protective effect of PPARα against pericyte loss in diabetic retinopathy. In streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice, fenofibrate treatment significantly ameliorated retinal acellular capillary formation and pericyte loss. In contrast, PPARα −/− mice with diabetes developed more severe retinal acellular capillary formation and pericyte dropout, compared with diabetic wild-type mice. Furthermore, PPARα knockout abolished the protective effect of fenofibrate against diabetes-induced retinal pericyte loss. In cultured primary human retinal capillary pericytes, activation and expression of PPARα both significantly reduced oxidative stress–induced apoptosis, decreased reactive oxygen species production, and down-regulated NAD(P)H oxidase 4 expression through blockade of NF-κB activation. Furthermore, activation and expression of PPARα both attenuated the oxidant-induced suppression of mitochondrial O2 consumption in human retinal capillary pericytes. Primary retinal pericytes from PPARα −/− mice displayed more apoptosis, compared with those from wild-type mice under the same oxidative stress. These findings identified a protective effect of PPARα on retinal pericytes, a novel function of endogenous PPARα in the retina.
Several studies support potential links between relative leukocyte telomere length (rLTL), a biomarker of biological aging, and type 2 diabetes. This study investigates relationships between rLTL and ...incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Consecutive Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes (
= 5,349) from the Hong Kong Diabetes Register for whom DNA obtained at baseline was stored and follow-up data were available were studied. rLTL was measured by using quantitative PCR. CVD was diagnosed on the basis of ICD-9 code.
Mean follow-up was 13.4 years (SD 5.5 years). rLTL was correlated inversely with age, diabetes duration, blood pressure, HbA
, and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR), and positively with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (all
< 0.001). Subjects with CVD at baseline had a shorter rLTL (4.3 ± 1.2 ΔΔCt) than did subjects without CVD (4.6 ± 1.2 ΔΔCt) (
< 0.001). Of the 4,541 CVD-free subjects at baseline, the 1,140 who developed CVD during follow-up had a shorter rLTL (4.3 ± 1.2 ΔΔCt) than those who remained CVD-free after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, and albuminuria status (4.7 ± 1.2 ΔΔCt) (
< 0.001). In Cox regression models, shorter rLTL was associated with higher risk of incident CVD (for each unit decrease, hazard ratio 1.252 95% CI 1.195-1.311,
< 0.001), which remained significant after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, systolic blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, HbA
, eGFR, and ACR (hazard ratio 1.141 95% CI 1.084-1.200,
< 0.001).
rLTL is significantly shorter in patients with type 2 diabetes and CVD, is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors, and is independently associated with incident CVD. Telomere length may be a useful biomarker for CVD risk in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Aims To determine the incidence and predictors of, and effects of fenofibrate on silent myocardial infarction (MI) in a large contemporary cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes in the Fenofibrate ...Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes (FIELD) study. Methods and results Routine electrocardiograms taken throughout the study were assessed by Minnesota-code criteria for the presence of new Q-waves without clinical presentation and analysed with blinding to treatment allocation and clinical outcome. Of all MIs, 36.8% were silent. Being male, older age, longer diabetes duration, prior cardiovascular disease (CVD), neuropathy, higher HbA1c, albuminuria, high serum creatinine, and insulin use all significantly predicted risk of clinical or silent MI. Fenofibrate reduced MI (clinical or silent) by 19% hazard ratio (HR) 0.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.69–0.94; P = 0.006, non-fatal clinical MI by 24% (P = 0.01), and silent MI by 16% (P = 0.16). Among those having silent MI, fenofibrate reduced subsequent clinical CVD events by 78% (HR 0.22, 95% CI 0.08–0.65; P = 0.003). Conclusion Silent and clinical MI have similar risk factors and increase the risk of future CVD events. Fenofibrate reduces the risk of a first MI and substantially reduces the risk of further clinical CVD events after silent MI, supporting its use in type 2 diabetes.
To explore the impact of missing data on the accuracy of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) metrics collected for a 2-week period in a clinical trial.
Simulations were conducted to examine the ...effect of various patterns of missingness on the accuracy of CGM metrics as compared with a "complete" data set. The proportion of missing data, the "block size" in which the data were missing, and the missing mechanism were modified for each "scenario." The degree of agreement between simulated and "true" glycemic measures under each scenario was presented as
.
Under all missing patterns,
declined as the proportion of missing data increased, however, as the "block size" of missing data increased, the percentage of missing data had a more pronounced effect on the agreement between measures. For a 14-day CGM data set to be considered representative for percentage time in range (%TIR), at least 70% of CGM data should be available over at least 10 days (
> 0.9). Skewed outcome measures, such as percentage time below range and coefficient of variation, were more affected by missing data than the less skewed measures (%TIR, percentage time above range, mean glucose).
Both the degree and pattern of missing data impact upon the accuracy of recommended CGM-derived glycemic measures. In planning research, an understanding of patterns of missing data in the study population is required to gauge the likely effects of missing data on outcome accuracy. Trial registration number: Australian New Zealand Clinic Trials Registry ACTRN12616000753459.
Background: There are a few prediction models for chronic complications in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). This study developed such risk models.
Methods: Data from 9795 adults with T2D in the ...Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes (FIELD) trial were used to develop risk prediction models for total CVD events, cardiovascular mortality, amputations and new microvascular events using 27 candidate traditional risk factors and additional novel biomarkers (incl. vascular and systemic inflammation, oxidative stress; n=26) using exhaustive search methods.
Results: There were 1295 total first CVD events, 267 CVD deaths, 115 amputations and 1530 new microvascular events. A total of 19 and 18 traditional risk factors were selected in the clinical risk models for total CVD events and CVD mortality, with AUC of 0.723 and 0.821 respectively. For individual microvascular complications, the AUC of their models ranged from 0.656 to 0.895. The addition of novel biomarkers to the clinical risk models only resulted in modestly higher AUC (Table below).
Conclusion: New clinical risk models can be implemented as risk prediction tools for chronic complications in adults with T2D, including for sight-threatening retinopathy and amputations. Novel biomarkers may guide future research on disease mechanisms, but had limited predictive value over clinical variables.
Disclosure
K.Ong: None. M.Taskinen: Board Member; Novo Nordisk, Consultant; Eli Lilly and Company, Novartis, Akcea, Research Support; Novo Nordisk. R.J.Simes: None. A.Jenkins: Advisory Panel; Insulet Corporation, Board Member; Insulin for Life, Research Support; Abbott Diabetes, Medtronic, Hemsley Charitable Trust, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), National Institutes of Health. A.C.Keech: None. On behalf of the field study investigators: n/a. R.L.O'connell: None. A.S.Januszewski: None. M.W.Donoghoe: None. V.Gebski: None. D.Sullivan: None. K.Rye: None. R.S.Scott: None. J.D.Best: None.
Funding
Laboratories Fournier; National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (457103, 1024105, 1037786)
Globally ≈10% of adults have diabetes, with 80% in disadvantaged regions, hence low-cost renoprotective agents are desirable. Fenofibrate demonstrated microvascular benefits in several cardiovascular ...end-point diabetes trials, but knowledge of effects in late-stage kidney disease is limited. We report new FIELD substudy data and call for further kidney outcomes data.
•The hormone FGF21 is involved in the pathophysiology of numerous diseases including CVD.•Elevated FGF21 levels are linked to higher total mortality risk in certain patient populations.•This ...MESA-based study shows a modest association of higher FGF21 levels with all-cause mortality.•Higher FGF21 levels are independently associated with non-CVD mortality, but not CVD mortality.
Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) levels are often elevated in cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, no study has assessed its association with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in a population free of clinically evident CVD.
A total of 5543 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) participants (mean age 62.7 years, 47.5 % male), free of clinically evident CVD at baseline, were studied. From baseline (2000–2002), 1606 deaths (including 387 CVD deaths) were observed over a median follow-up of 17.7 years. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was performed to assess the association of plasma FGF21 levels with mortality.
FGF21 levels at baseline were associated with all-cause mortality, even after adjustment for traditional risk factors, including demographic, socioeconomic and cardiovascular risk factors (adjusted hazard ratio 1.08 95% confidence interval 1.01, 1.16 per 1 SD increase in ln-transformed levels; 1.27 for the highest vs, lowest quartile). Baseline FGF21 levels were significantly associated with both CVD and non-CVD mortality in unadjusted models. However, the association with non-CVD mortality, but not CVD mortality, remained statistically significant after adjusting for covariates. Similar results were obtained in FGF21 quartile analyses and also when using competing risk regression or matched case-control cohort in sensitivity analyses.
In subjects without clinically-evident CVD at baseline, over 17.7 years follow-up there is a modest association of baseline FGF21 levels with all-cause mortality. The finding that this is driven primarily by a significant association with non-CVD mortality over almost two decades merits further investigation.
Aims/hypothesis
Circulating fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) levels are often elevated in obesity, dyslipidaemia, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. This study investigated the relationship ...of plasma FGF21 levels with cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Methods
Plasma FGF21 levels were measured by ELISA at baseline in 9,697 individuals with type 2 diabetes participating in the Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes (FIELD) study. We assessed the association of FGF21 levels with the incidence of different cardiovascular outcomes over 5 years. The primary outcome was total cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and the secondary outcomes were the four individual components: coronary heart disease events, total stroke, CVD mortality and coronary and carotid revascularisation. The tertiary outcome was hospitalisation for angina pectoris.
Results
Higher baseline FGF21 levels were associated with higher risks of all cardiovascular outcome events after adjusting for the study treatment allocation (all
p
< 0.01). The associations remained significant for total CVD events and for coronary and carotid revascularisation after further adjusting for confounding factors, with the HR (95% CI) being 1.28 (1.10, 1.50) and 1.26 (1.01, 1.56), respectively, for the highest tertile compared with the lowest tertile (overall effect
p
= 0.002 and 0.007, respectively). The addition of FGF21 levels to a model including established CVD risk factors predicting total CVD events led to a non-significant increase in the C-statistic but there was a significant improvement in integrated discrimination and net reclassification.
Conclusions/interpretation
Higher baseline plasma FGF21 levels were associated with higher risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Trial registration:
ISRCTN64783481
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